Dozens of Motorcyclists Rally After Highway Altercation

Dozens of motorcycle club members staged a protest outside St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Morningside Heights on Wednesday evening, saying they were unfairly being labeled as gang members and thugs by authorities.

Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street Journal

Victor Rodriguez, center, addresses reporters as motorcycle club members gathered in front of St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital on Wednesday.

The protest came after a group of motorcyclists who participated in a ride on the West Side Highway on Sunday got into an altercation with the driver of a Range Rover when one of the cyclists slowed down in front of the vehicle and was struck. That set off a high-speed chase that resulted in the beating of the SUV driver, Alexian Lien, 33, in front of his wife and two-year-old daughter.

Portions of the incident were caught on a video camera affixed to the helmet of one of the motorcycle riders. The footage was later uploaded to YouTube.

The motorcyclists said they gathered at the hospital on Wednesday in support of Edwin “Jay” Mieses Jr., who is being treated there. The 32-year-old sound engineer from Lawrence, Mass., was seriously injured in the melee when Mr. Lien allegedly hit some of the riders when he accelerated away from cyclists blocking his path on the highway, police have said. Mr. Mieses’s family said he is paralyzed and in a medically-induced coma.

The video has since gone viral. Republican mayoral nominee Joe Lhota called the incident gang related on Wednesday.

One cyclist, Christopher Cruz, 28, of Passaic, N.J., has been charged with unlawful imprisonment and reckless driving, a traffic violation. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute a second man, Allen Edwards, 42, who was arrested and charged by police on Tuesday. Police are looking for other bikers involved with the assault, which left Mr. Lien with two black eyes and lacerations to his face and body.

Lexie Filpo, 30, of Corona, Queens, said she was riding on the back of a friend’s motorcycle during Sunday’s ride and saw the bikers’ efforts to stop Mr. Lien’s vehicle.

for The Wall Street Journal

The wife of Edwin “Jay” Mieses Jr. hugged a friend in front of St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital where her husband is in a coma.

“I preferred to stay behind that car because it just seemed reckless the moment it got on the highway,” Ms. Filpo said, standing on the corner across the street from the hospital. Other cars stopped on the entrance to the highway to let the wave of bikers pass, she said, adding that only Mr. Lien insisted on merging into traffic.

“When everybody came to a halt, I stood up to see everything that was going on,” she said, referring to the initial effort to bring Mr. Lien to a halt. “The video doesn’t show that people were actually telling him to stop and to slow down.”

The subsequent chase and violence stemmed from riders’ attempts to get Mr. Lien to stop because he had struck Mr. Cruz, Ms. Filpo said. “The law says when he hits somebody from the back, he has to stop,” she said.

Jose, a 35-year-old biker from Harlem who said he was with other motorcyclists for the first part of the ride along the West Side Highway, but did not see the incident with the SUV, said the motorcyclists feared for their safety and were targets of Mr. Lien, who he said was driving “aggressively.”

“No one on our side is getting justice. The Range Rover hit one bike, ran over two bikers and then kept going,” he said. “That’s not how someone who is scared acts. I don’t believe his story and everyone, the police, the media, is painting us like we started it. We didn’t.”

Jose declined to give his last name. Wednesday’s protest was held amid heavy police presence and motorcyclists were told by officers beforehand to leave their bikes at home. Still, dozens of bikes were parked outside the front steps of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine near St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital.

Some of the motorcyclists complained that police had prevented them from attending the event by setting up checkpoints. A law-enforcement official disputed that and said some cyclists didn’t observe police-sanctioned rally and protest areas.

“We did not limit anything or anyone,” the official said. “They arrived separately and chose not to meet at their agreed upon rally area in Brooklyn.”

Some motorcyclists were in the city over the weekend for Hollywood Stuntz, an annual unsanctioned motorcycle event where bikers drive around Manhattan and perform tricks.

Some of the bikers who protested Wednesday night said those involved in the altercation on the highway, including Mr. Mieses, were not part of Hollywood Stuntz but rather were amateur bikers or members of well-known motorcycle or auto clubs, dubbed MC’s and AC’s.

“In the video, you see a few colors, or jackets, representing MC’s of the bikers but a lot of these guys looked like they were on their own,” said Victor Rodriguez, a 39-year-old member of the Solo Noi Motorcycle Club in the Bronx.

Mr. Rodriguez, who did not attend Sunday’s Upper West Side ride, said several biking enthusiasts from New York City stayed away from the event because they knew the potential for arrests and “silly stuff,” referring to biking stunts.

“We look menacing but we’re not out to fight anyone,” he said.

Earlier Wednesday, two attorneys who said they were representing Mr. Lien exited his apartment building.

The lawyers, Frank C. Panetta and Nicholas J. Massimo, said the firm will issue a statement on Mr. Lien’s behalf on Thursday.

“We ask that you please just respect his privacy,” Mr. Massimo said. The lawyers would not say in what capacity they are representing Mr. Lien and would not comment on his condition.